Face to face with Delta Sleep

There are bands that can constantly surprise you even within the course of one album. That’s very much about Delta Sleep. One moment they are ambient, calm dreamers and another – turn into loud, post-hardcore noisemakers. June 15 sees the band release their debut ‘Twin Galaxies’ – the album which is unusual in a lot of things. Rock Britain decided to get to know these talented lads better and had a chat with Delta Sleep’s own Glen.

– ‘Twin Galaxies’ is your debut album. How does it feel to be releasing your first full-length?

– It feels great, we’ve been sitting on these songs for a long time so it feels amazing to have them all rounded up in album form. Also the artwork and casing looks soooo sexy.

– How would you describe the record in three words?

– Playful – Weird – Surprise

– What was the journey of creating ‘Twin Galaxies’ from the very first moments to the final ones like?

– It was actually kind of disjointed in a way – we wrote a couple of the songs ages ago with our old bassist / drummer around the time that we released ‘Management’ in 2013 – we played them live every now and then, we just never recorded them. Our line-up changed and we sort of re-learnt them as we taught our new drummer and bassist.

The songs became a lot more powerful with the new rhythm section being definitely ‘heavier’ than before. Once we had done a couple of tours with Dave and Blake and kind of knew where we all fitted in, we started writing some of the songs throughout 2014.

It all came to a head when we booked the studio to record an album and all of the songs were still kind of half-finished – we decided to get the songs as playable as possible and went on a 3 week tour of Italy / EU – the whole idea being: “when are we ever going to have 3 spare weeks to play our songs every day?” it was the best chance we had of finessing these songs and it really felt like if we didn’t play the songs on the tour, they weren’t going to be good enough for the album.

We went into the studio immediately after getting back to the UK and stayed there for 10 days doing all of the tracking – The album is a perfect document of where the songs were at that time.

– There’s a lot of diversity on this album. What are the main influences/inspirations that went into this character of the record?

– So many different influences musically, it’s impossible to say – I think because the songs were written over such a long time, and with different people, it’s definitely had a big effect on the style of each song. We wanted to make an album that flowed nicely one track to the next, whilst also not having any songs that sounded the same as another. We didn’t really think about “how the record will sound” or comparing it to our influences when making it initially – it was more about writing one song and finishing the next.

– The artwork for ‘Twin Galaxies’ is very eye-catching. How was it born?

– The artwork is by Laura Jayne Weeks – she made our “Management” artwork and we were really happy with it.

For Twin Galaxies, Dev created a lyrical theme that connects most of the songs, so we tied it into that. The story is about a guy who wakes up to find his town sinking into the sea and goes on a big adventure overcoming one obstacle at a time in search of new land.

– While writing music, what’s the most important thing for you?

– Being completely chilled with no time limit, sharing ideas, being open to changing your own and being up for saying “I don’t like that idea” when you don’t think something sounds good – also not taking it personally when someone says they aren’t into something you suggest.

– You’re self-taught musicians. What inspired you to pick up an instrument in the first place? What was your first acquaintance with playing music like?

– I used to play saxophone as a kid, that was my first instrument really. I got bored though, it felt too much like a chore and I just wanted to learn how to play pop-punk songs. I bought a bass as there were less strings so I guessed it would be easier. Then started a NOFX cover band called “YESFX5000″…

– Do you remember your first gig as Delta Sleep? What was it like?

– I think it was at a battle of the bands at me and Dev’s Uni – we played in between a guy doing solo Jimi Hendrix covers and a ska band (i think?)… it was WILD

– What can you be found doing before a show?

– Either one of these two situations:

Drinking beer and doing shots of Sambuca…

Really late, stuck in traffic on the M25 and starting in 20 mins…

– What do you expect from the summer 2015?

– Playing as much as possible to promote this album!
Festivals – (ARCTANGENT!) a short run of UK dates (4th June – 8th June) – possibly some cheeky EU stuff. Then organising a UK / EU tour for the autumn.